Suchergebnisse

The topic of parental engagement in the context of child protection is of significant international interest, given much documented problems of achieving effective 'partnerships' where professional agencies raise serious concerns about children. This article reports the findings of a qualitative study of interaction between professionals and parents in the quasi-judicial setting of pre-proceedings meetings in England. Recent legislative changes in England and Wales have aimed to improve the prospects for effective partnership work with parents through a revised pre-proceedings process. Through detailed examination of parent-professional interaction using methods of applied discourse studies, the study highlights the constraints that institutional requirements create in terms of the differential rights and obligations of parents and professionals. Inevitably, that talk is asymmetrically organized in favour of the local authority, leads to resistance on the part of parents. The study highlights problems of engaging parents who display both active and passive forms of resistance, as they seek to challenge or reject organizational goals. The study concludes with broader observations about the likely limits of legislative efforts that seek to 're-order' the complex relationships between parents and professionals in child protection work.

In a recent Sure Start evaluation report (Barnes et al. 2006) it was argued that an increase in Section 47 enquiries and registrations on the Child Protection Register in Sure Start Local Programme Areas was an achievement, reflecting better and/or earlier identification of need and enhanced collaboration between agencies to identify and support families. This paper critically engages with these conclusions, arguing that they are in danger of encouraging practices at a discursive and practical level that in many ways represent a retrograde step back to child protection policies that predominated in the pre-Messages from Research (Department of Health 1995) period. In this sense, it is argued that the evaluation report represents the potential re-authorization of Section 47 work through its endorsement of practices skewed towards investigative child protection. The paper concludes that if a broader range of agencies are drawn into child welfare's more forensic practices, this may exacerbate the social exclusion of poorer working class communities and women, ignoring the socio-economic determinants of child `abuse'.

The study objectives were to (1) examine the association between children's ethnicity and final legal orders at the end of family care proceedings (section 31 of the 1989 Children Act), and (2) test whether residential context, such as co-ethnic density and area-level deprivation, moderates this association.
Two sources of data were used for this study. The first consisted of records routinely generated by Cafcass (England) and stored in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank, and the second was the 2021 England Census. The focus was on children whose initial care proceedings took place between 2015/2016 and 2020/2021 and concluded with a recorded final legal order outcome (N = 98,161). Three-level logistic regression models were employed to estimate the relationship between children's ethnicity and adoption, along with the potential moderating effects of co-ethnic density and area-level deprivation.
Children's ethnicity is significantly associated with placement for adoption, with white children being more likely to be subject to placement orders compared to children from all other ethnic groups combined (Asian, black, mixed or multiple, and other ethnic groups). Higher local authority co-ethnic density considerably reduces the likelihood of adoption for children of other ethnicities besides white, but not for white children. Moreover, white children living in the most deprived LSOAs are more likely to be placed for adoption than those residing in the least deprived LSOAs. However, the likelihood of placement for adoption remains consistent across all LSOA deprivation quintiles for children from ethnicities other than white. Local authority-level deprivation does not appear to moderate the relationship between children's ethnicity and adoption.
This study sheds light on the intricate relationship between ethnicity, residential context, and adoption. While previous research has indicated that white children are more likely to be adopted, the findings enhance our understanding of the underlying mechanisms influencing adoption, paving the way for a more equitable family justice system.

AbstractThis paper examined relationships between area‐level deprivation, local authorities' social care expenditure and the rates of children entering care proceedings in England using a novel data linkage of de‐identified records provided by the Children and Family Court Advisory Service (Cafcass). Using structural equation modelling, the authors found strong positive relationships between socioeconomic area deprivation and high rates of children undergoing care proceedings in England between 2015 and 2019. Preventative social care expenditure is associated with lower child rates when adjusting for deprivation. Our findings suggest that deprived and underfunded local authorities respond to an increased need by prioritizing care arrangements.

This paper examines the issue of professional advocacy for parents in England following the local authority issuing the Letter Before Proceedings when the concerns about the welfare of a child are so serious the local authority are considering applying for a care order. We explore the tensions of providing a legal advocacy service for parents - drawing on a study of 57 cases, scrutinised as part of the Coventry and Warwickshire Cafcass Pre-Proceedings Pilot (Broadhurst et al. 2012) and explores the contribution of legal representation for parents. The pre-proceedings meeting can be pivotal in terms of the direction of the case, the impression created at the meeting, and the action parties take afterwards. The importance of advocacy for parents was highlighted in the study both to facilitate parents' understanding of the issues, and to afford a level of protection of their rights. It is noteworthy that in 16 out of 82 pre-proceedings meetings no advocate was present, and in general fathers were less likely to be represented (although as reported the exact pattern appears more complex). Where advocates were present, contributions to the pre proceedings meeting varied from no input, to seeking points of clarification, and in 4 cases there was evidence of active 'brokering' on behalf of their clients. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Information technology plays a pivotal role in New Labour's modernization programme. Here we report findings from a 2 year ethnographic study of the impact and origin of one such system, the Integrated Children's System, which has been deployed in statutory children's social care. We show how the ICS, by attempting to micro-manage work through a rigid performance management regime, and a centrally prescribed practice model, has disrupted the professional task, engendering a range of unsafe practices and provoking a gathering storm of user resistance. We attribute these paradoxical outcomes to inherent flaws in the design of ICS, which derive from the history of its development and its embodiment of an audit-driven, inspectorial ideology. We conclude with some suggestions for user-centred design and policymaking, which have relevance not only for children's social care but for the public services in general.

AbstractLimited research has directly sought the input of parents involved in the child protection system during pregnancy and with their infants. As the focus of these policies and practices, parents have a unique and important insight not available to others, so it is vital to obtain their input. As part of a larger Australian study, qualitative interviews were undertaken with 13 parents asking about their views and experiences. Parents predominantly became involved with child protection services during pregnancy through a prenatal report. Parents who previously had their newborn removed from their care described it as sudden and unexpected, leaving them distressed and unsupported post‐removal, with a growing list of requirements for them to see their baby or for restoration to be considered. Domestic violence was a particular issue of concern for some mothers who expressed distress that their partners, perpetrators of violence, were allowed access to their infant with fewer requirements than for them. Improvements recommended by the parents included greater communication and preparation for the removal, better recognition of improvements in their situations and increased supports to be provided to parents both pre‐ and post‐removal. Parental experiences provide an important guide to improving child protection practice with these families.

Parental substance misuse is a leading factor in child abuse and neglect and frequently results in court-mandated permanent child removal. Family drug treatment courts, which originated in the USA and are only found in adversarial family justice systems, are a radical innovation to tackle this problem. Unlike ordinary court, they treat parents within the court arena as well as adjudicating, and in this way they seek to draw a new balance between parental needs and the child's right to timely permanency. Family drug treatment courts have spread to England, Australia and Northern Ireland and international research has found they have higher rates of parental substance misuse cessation and family reunification and lower foster care costs than ordinary courts. Yet their growth has been far from straightforward. In the USA they have not kept pace with the rise of criminal drug treatment courts and in England and Australia their numbers remain small. The central purpose of this article is to explore why the family drug treatment movement has not achieved wider impact and to consider opportunities and challenges for its future development. To address these questions we draw on evidence and experience from the USA, England and Australia. We discuss the operational challenges, tensions between children's needs for stability and parental timescales for recovery, the impact of wider economic and political change, and issues in data evaluation. We conclude that despite the promise of family drug treatment courts as a new paradigm to address risky parenting, effecting systemic change in the courts is extremely difficult.